ILLUMINATING

Neuroscience, I adore you.

Your brain scans lit up to show us what happens to the human brain as gal or guy reads a work of fiction.

Discoveries that made my day.

 

Fact: narratives full of descriptive writing, compelling figures of speech, and emotional dialogue between characters both stimulate our brains, and alter our behavior.

We understood that language regions in the brain are activated as we read and interpret written words.

But now brain scans are telling us that stories fire up other sections of our brains; sections distinct from language-processing areas.

Read a word like “lilac” or “smoke”, and the primary olfactory cortex comes alive.

Consider metaphors with a tactile component - “That child’s a rough, uncluttered canvas, awaiting brush strokes and color” - and the sensory cortex is activated.

Read about motion -“She tiptoed through the puddle” - and the part of the motor cortex that coordinates the body’s leg movements is triggered.

Neuroscience, I'm in awe of you.

You and your brain scans informed us that the same neurological regions in our brains are stimulated whether we are reading about a particular experience, or living through it.

You have determined that the act of reading really can make us humans feel stimulated and alive.

Especially if we’re reading fiction.

In Your Brain on Fiction, author Annie Murphy Paul details how Keith Oatley, a cognitive psychologist and novelist, believes “reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that ‘runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.’”

Sensory details, figures of speech, dialogue, and descriptions of people and their actions in works of fiction not only replicate reality, they bring a reader beyond reality, into a character’s thoughts and feelings. Paul writes, “The novel, of course, is an unequaled medium for the exploration of human social and emotional life. And there is evidence that just as the brain responds to depictions of smells and textures and movements as if they were the real thing, so it treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social encounters.”

Neuroscience, I thank you.

You and your brain scans taught us that the brain networks we use to understand stories are the same brain networks we use to process our interactions with others; especially when we’re trying to figure out thoughts and feelings.

According to Paul, “Scientists call this capacity of the brain to construct a map of other people’s intentions ‘theory of mind.’ Narratives offer a unique opportunity to engage this capacity, as we identify with characters’ longings and frustrations, guess at their hidden motives and track their encounters with friends and enemies, neighbors and lovers.”

Makes perfect sense that those who read lots of great fiction are more understanding and empathetic toward others, and better able view the world from different perspectives. Even pre-schoolers who have more stories read to them are better able to understand other people’s intentions.

Fiction, Dr. Oatley notes, “is a particularly useful simulation because negotiating the social world effectively is extremely tricky, requiring us to weigh up myriad interacting instances of cause and effect. Just as computer simulations can help us get to grips with complex problems such as flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories and dramas can help us understand the complexities of social life.”

Neuroscience, you and your brain scans are illuminating.

Reading great literature improves our minds, our characters, our insights and actions.


QUING Hereby Decrees: Readers, rejoice. Read more. Writers, rejoice. Write better.